taube wilson on sun 8 aug 99
Hi all,
Anyone considering linking to others' web sites should
be aware of recent lawsuits addressing this issue as
reported in the New York Times. An article entitled "Is
Linking Always Legal? The Experts Aren't Sure." which appeared
on August 6, 1999, discusses the case of a a man who linked to
Universal Pictures' web site from his Movie-List site without
permission and was threatened with a lawsuit (he removed the
links). The issue for the studio seemed to be that by linking
deep within their site he bypassed several pages of advertising.
He has since received a similar lawsuit threat from another
movie studio.
There was also recently a suit brought by Ticketmaster against
Microsoft to stop Microsoft's Sidewalk.com site from linking
to Ticketmaster. It has been settled out of court, and the
links have been removed(see "Ticketmaster and Microsoft Settle
Linking Dispute" NYTimes February 15, 1999).
Anyhow, the issue still hasn't been resolved in court. While
I think it's unlikely that an individual artist would object
to one of us providing a link to their site, we still need
to be aware that there is a legal issue yet to be decided.
Taube Wilson
Annandale, Va.
tpottery@hotmail.com
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Ray Aldridge on tue 10 aug 99
At 06:51 PM 8/8/99 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi all,
> Anyone considering linking to others' web sites should
>be aware of recent lawsuits addressing this issue as
>reported in the New York Times. An article entitled "Is
>Linking Always Legal? The Experts Aren't Sure." which appeared
>on August 6, 1999, discusses the case of a a man who linked to
>Universal Pictures' web site from his Movie-List site without
>permission and was threatened with a lawsuit (he removed the
>links). The issue for the studio seemed to be that by linking
>deep within their site he bypassed several pages of advertising.
>He has since received a similar lawsuit threat from another
>movie studio.
>
> There was also recently a suit brought by Ticketmaster against
>Microsoft to stop Microsoft's Sidewalk.com site from linking
>to Ticketmaster. It has been settled out of court, and the
>links have been removed(see "Ticketmaster and Microsoft Settle
>Linking Dispute" NYTimes February 15, 1999).
>
> Anyhow, the issue still hasn't been resolved in court. While
>I think it's unlikely that an individual artist would object
>to one of us providing a link to their site, we still need
>to be aware that there is a legal issue yet to be decided.
>
I'm not a lawyer, but it's unlikely, in my opinion, that anyone will be
successfully sued for providing a link to a public site. Note that the
instances cited by Taube were settled without actual trial-- lawsuits were
filed as a threatening tactic, without, I'm pretty sure, any intention of
actually going to court. (And in the former case, it's my understanding
that the offender was not simply providing links, he was ripping off
content which did not belong to him.) If there were much danger of a
successful suit, then many sites which point to the sites of political
enemies using a truly vicious level of derision would have long since been
lawyered into submission. Furthermore, many sites which do business on the
Web have begun to set up comparative shopping pages, in which a bot daily
cruises the pages of competitors and lists the various prices of the item
the customer is shopping for. In fact, Buy.com does this and then
undercuts their least expensive competitor by a buck or two, in order to
appear at the top of any "cheapest source" list.
It is my unprofessional, but emphatic opinion that any site which opens on
the Web has tacitly agreed to accept linkage from any other site, because,
after all, this is the bedrock nature of the Web. Any court decision that
sites had a legal right to control links pointing at them would effectively
destroy the Web, if it were in any way enforceable. (It wouldn't be,
because the Web is Worldwide and other countries would do a booming
business in renting linklist space.)
It's not gonna happen.
Ray
Christopher J. Anton on wed 11 aug 99
> > Anyhow, the issue still hasn't been resolved in court. While
> >I think it's unlikely that an individual artist would object
> >to one of us providing a link to their site, we still need
> >to be aware that there is a legal issue yet to be decided.
> >
Another major factor in these suits is the manner in which the link
performs. One needs to be sure that the link _transfers_ to the new site.
Many links, especially the ones resulting in lawsuits, use frames and
display the new site in a frame. This practice can lead to the
misimpression that the linked contents is owned/produced by the linking
site.
Basic human courtesy says contact the site owner/webmaster. I have had
requests turned down, albeit rarely. Often there may be concern as to other
content / links with which their site may be associated.
- Chris
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